Word and multiple conditions (a cutting edge skill?)

Subject: Word and multiple conditions (a cutting edge skill?)
From: MList -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 10:10:24 -0400


All,

I'm a longtime FrameMaker user who has minimal contact
with Word. Not that I actively avoid it -- it just doesn't
come up that much, so I'm way out-of-practice.
I'm not looking for instructions, just a quick opinion.

Certain co-workers are of the opinion that Word can (reliably,
cleanly, etc.) do something like what FM can do with Conditional
Text, which is to say:
make various words, paragraphs, objects, etc., appear
or disappear throughout a big document, according to
the setting of a global condition.

Basically, somebody wants to make a "framework" document with
a whole LOT of markers/tags/place-holders in it. There's a
core of text that is common to all versions, but for every one
of those place holders/markers/tags, there are (say) four
possible words or paragraphs or versions of multi-step
instructions that would be automatically selected/de-selected
to appear in the output.

When the document is applicable to product "A", the writer
turns on condition "A". This causes the "A" version of the
product name to appear in hundreds of locations, the "A" version
of certain descriptions and explanations to appear, and the "A"
version of certain step-by-step instructions to appear.
Meanwhile, the "B", "C", and "A&W" versions of all those
'variables' are invisible, and don't affect pagination.

Then, they turn off the "A" condition setting and turn on
the "B" condition setting. All the "A"-version verbiage and
pictures and whatever... disappears, while all the proper
"B"-version stuff appears. Same idea with "C". Same idea with
an "A" version that's adjusted for Windows users only
(i.e., the "A" condition and the "W" condition are turned on
simultaneously, so the document addresses "Product A for
Windows").

As a nearly-never Word user, I don't have an authoritative
opinion. If I were doing it, I think the task would actually be
work-intensive insanity, even for FrameMaker (especially the
dual "A&W" condition), and I'd prefer to go with something like
XML and some scripting language for the text-selection and
compiling. However, a certain locally influential person seems
to think that Word could handle this easily, for multiple sets
of several-hundred-page documents... based (I guess) on her/his
past-life success with form-letters.

Maybe s/he's right. I'm leery. Is the above task a righteous
use of the tool (Word), and I'm just a wienie?

Oh, ok. Ya got me. They want to try it with our Test Cases
and other QA documents, and then (assuming success) implement
the same thing with my customer documents (whimper, whine...)
... meaning that I'd have to abandon FrameMaker.
But if enough of you think that Word is a suitable tool, I can
hold my nose... :-)

The criteria are that it be set-up then run in automated fashion,
and then require only minimal tweaking/fixing, of the generated
documents. Whaddya think?

Thanks,

/kevin

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